wild hunt

[WILD-HUNTSMAN.] wild-huntsman, s. Anthrop.: The principal figure in an Aryan storm myth, in which the phenomena of a tempest are represented as incidents in a hunt or chase. (The legend was popularized by Scott in his Wild Hunts man , an imitation of Bürger's Wilde Jäger .) "The peasant who keeps up in fireside talk the memory of the Wild Huntsman, Wodejäger, the Grand Veneur of Fontainebleau, Herne the hunter of Windsor Forest, has almost lost the significance of this grand old storm-myth. By mere force of tradition, the name of the 'Wish' or 'Wush' hounds of the Wild Huntsman has been preserved through the west of England; the words must for ages past have lost their meaning among the country-folk, though we may plainly recognize in them Woden's ancient well-known name, old German 'Wunsch.' As of old, the Heaven-god drives the clouds before him in rag. ing tempest acro the sky, while, safe within the cottage walls the tale-teller unwittingly describes, in personal legendary shape, this same Wild Hunt of the Storm."Tytor: Prim. Cult. (ed. 1873), ii. 362.